Friday, November 20, 2015

Gambles of Fate

Last Monday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Woldguardian
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Sentry Stone & Manikins
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Ravager White Mane
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

Feora, Protector of Flame
- 2x Reckoner
- Vanquisher
- Redeemer

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
2x Vassal of Menoth
Gorman diWulfe
Saxon Orrik
Epic Eiryss

Objective: Fuel Cache

Scenario was Recon, and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 2.

It's been a while since I played Morvahna the Dawnshadow, looks like. I don't know why I didn't leave one Ravager lagging far behind. Earlier some Ravagers and a few Bloodweavers have died to Redeemer shots. The two AoE's about there in the middle are forests from manikins.

Turn 2 Protectorate makes a massive dent in my forces. My only saving grace was that two combined melee attacking Temple Flameguards somehow missed the last Ravager who had charged Eiryss. Def 15 from treewalker special ability sure still kept me in this game.

Turn 3 I had to use Morvahna's feat. She brought all the Ravagers and Bloodweavers back as well as War Wolf. Morvahna was at two hit boxes remaining or something. I had been thinking of going to a nice little killing spree with White Mane and heal Morvahna with Carnivore, but that didn't quite work out. Carnivore removes from play and White Mane needs corpse tokens to do that...

Pureblood Warpwolf advances to use its spray to get rid of Saxon Orrik, Gorman diWulfe, a Vassal of Menoth and a choir grunt.

Shifting Stones teleport Woldguardian right next to Reckoner. Reckoner had Enliven on, but Woldguardian knocks stuff down with its bare fists. Damage rolls were only so-and-so. I'm not sure if any of the systems actually broke.

Bloodweavers dispelled Ignite from Temple Flameguard.

Turn 3 Protectorate killed off Woldguardian and a whole lot of Ravagers die, because that's what they do best. I think Feora used her feat this turn, but it was a little bit of a lacklustre. Def 14 miraculously saved Pureblood Warpwolf, which still kept me in the game. Though Pureblood was on fire and had, what, four or five damage boxes left? Death by fire was well within realms of possibility here.

Now, Warpwolf didn't die. Turn 4 Morvahna healed it and cast Primal on it. It then proceeded to slaughter absolutely everything! Yet it failed and killed none. The Reckoner who had already been beaten by Woldguardian was so badly injured after one attack that I relied on other models to bring it down. It crippled the other Reckoner well enough also, but not completely. This performance took quite a toll on Morvahna's life track.

Last remaining Ravager and even charging Reeve Hunter tried to score the few remaining points in to Reckoner, but it was all for naught. At least the Bloodweavers mopped up Eiryss and Temple Flameguards.

It started to look bad. Reckoners both were pretty useless by now, but I'd lose Pureblood now and there was still unscratched Redeemer and Vanquisher to deal with.

Except. Well.

Protectorate turn 4, and Pureblood defied all odds and stayed alive. One of the Reckoners killed last remaining Tharn Ravager. The other Reckoner and the Redeemer... uh. The dice rolls must have been really skewed.

Turn 5 Bloodweavers kill Holt, a choir grunt and the Reckoner. Pureblood Warpwolf frenzies and wrecks the other Reckoner. I don't remember where and why I did it, but I do remember that I did a re-roll gamble twice with Morvahna during this game.

I got no idea why there is a Ravager in the zone in the picture. It's dead anyway. Can't you smell the rotting flesh?

Protectorate then finally punches the Pureblood in the nose and it dies. Feora advances close by and casts Fire Step, which takes four Bloodweavers down. They fail their massive casualties check.

Vanquisher probably set Morvahna on fire somehow. I definitely remember rolling some fire checks for Morvahna. Perhaps that happened a turn earlier, since there is no longer a Reeve Hunter in the last picture. Maybe Vanquisher smacked him. Anyway, for the track record - only one fire continuous effect got naturally extinguished. Even from the many models that hadn't been in Feora's control area.

Feora had come closer to hug a wreck marker for cover.

This proved to be Feora's undoing.

Turn 6 Gorax destroys my friendly objective from the way of Morvahna, and shifting stones teleport themselves elsewhere, too.

Morvahna then charges Feora. I thought this would be an easy kill thanks to Morvahna's unsporting Life Trade sword. But this was before I learned Feora was at Arm 21 thanks to two focus being used to overboost power field, and Escort.

It was far from easy, and Morvahna was also far from her maximum health. It took all of Morvahna's life (except for one or two) and all of Morvahna's fury to kill Feora.

Tough game that I probably should have lost. Giving whole Ravager unit on a plate shouldn't have went unpunished - especially when opponent lost because of one small mis- (or fire?) step.

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